I had a story rejected after four months

[holliday1960]

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/dbimages/1173668.jpg https://www.allromanceebooks.com/dbimages/547257.jpg

Yummy! Sweet Treats!

 

[holliday1960]

Going both ways.

Whatever happened to personal references? Before the net, everything was so much easier...

 

[sr71plt]

Just think what a fun date that would be.

"So, John, how long have you been in international banking? If you have a card I would like to call your office to verify employment."

"Of course, Sally. Here you go. Is that your last gyne checkup on the table?"

There's a TV commercial showing that comes close to that. When the couple sit down, they both make quite clear that they have a backup activity for the evening if the date doesn't work out.

 

[plesmore]

There's a TV commercial showing that comes close to that. When the couple sit down, they both make quite clear that they have a backup activity for the evening if the date doesn't work out.

Your know, that would save a lot of time and money, but fun is that?

 

[Grillytilly]

A long time back I had a story rejected because they thought it contained underage sex when it didn't. I found a way to add a reference to the characters' ages that I think flowed naturally with the story. It always feels jarring to me when a story is going and then the real story pauses so the characters can stop and say "By the way, I'm over 18."

Just saying the age of the character is boring for me. I like to use that information to tell us something more about the character. A guy tries to do something that is restricted to 18 and up. He gets turned away even though he has an id. This tells us that he looks young and he gets bullied.

Another thing you can do if a guy still lives with his parents is have the parents try to ground him for something and he balks and just moves out. With just that information we learn that his parents sill treat him like a kid and he's tired of it.

For a girl you could have some guy she knows come onto her. He explains that while she was jailbait before, now she no longer is and he'd like to tap that ass.

As for the feelings building up while growing up, I don't personally have a lot of experience with that so I'd have to try and wrap my head around it before writing it. The best thing I could suggest is go vague and keep the feelings more romantic and less sexual for underage characters. An underage person could have a crush but not ever act on it. Then as an adult things come to a head.

 

[ElectricBlue]

As for the feelings building up while growing up, I don't personally have a lot of experience with that so I'd have to try and wrap my head around it before writing it. The best thing I could suggest is go vague and keep the feelings more romantic and less sexual for underage characters. An underage person could have a crush but not ever act on it. Then as an adult things come to a head.

Doing what you say would go borderline on the site's No Under 18 Sex rule.

You cannot have vague and ambiguous descriptions or any hint of sexual experience or arousal if your character is under 18. A crush is a young teenager coming to terms with their sexuality, so you could mention it in passing but not describe it.

Please remember the site rule: no description of sexual activity of any sort with characters under 18.

None. If in doubt, see Rule 1: none. It's a simple rule.

 

[plesmore]

Why always the push for underage? There is no need for "barely 18" stories involving sex - which I believe this site tends to write about. What is wrong with a girl in her 20's?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sometimes a couple w-2's, last job review, and credit check can be helpful on a 2nd date.....or is it the 1st date, I forget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVVkwtj6Rls

 

[plesmore]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVVkwtj6Rls

hahaha - I need one those machines.........................

 

[ElectricBlue]

Why always the push for underage? There is no need for "barely 18" stories involving sex - which I believe this site tends to write about. What is wrong with a girl in her 20's?

or her 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's 70's.... oh wait, that would be writing about real people...

I'm just considering my story file - my youngest couple had "both just turned 18" in a First Time reminiscence (with a touch of upwards age adjustment for Lit); my next youngest were 18, 18 and a half but the real point of the story was nine years later, so 27. How rock'n'roll is that? But we didn't die.

Now that I've got past writing about myself at university, my more sophisticated characters tend to be either late twenties, early thirties, or age unstated unless age is important; or in their forties or fifties. It's quite simple - me back then, me now.

I can't see the point of writing about 18 year old girls who don't have a clue what they want; I'd far prefer to write about experienced forty or fifty year old women who know exactly what they want AND know how to get it.

 

[plesmore]

or her 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's 70's.... oh wait, that would be writing about real people...

I'm just considering my story file - my youngest couple had "both just turned 18" in a First Time reminiscence (with a touch of upwards age adjustment for Lit); my next youngest were 18, 18 and a half but the real point of the story was nine years later, so 27. How rock'n'roll is that? But we didn't die.

Now that I've got past writing about myself at university, my more sophisticated characters tend to be either late twenties, early thirties, or age unstated unless age is important; or in their forties or fifties. It's quite simple - me back then, me now.

I can't see the point of writing about 18 year old girls who don't have a clue what they want; I'd far prefer to write about experienced forty or fifty year old women who know exactly what they want AND know how to get it.

Nicely put.

 

[8letters]

Why always the push for underage? There is no need for "barely 18" stories involving sex - which I believe this site tends to write about. What is wrong with a girl in her 20's?

Depends on the story premise. Some story ideas work only with a girl who is 18. By 18, I mean graduating/just graduated from high school. The ages of the female MC's in my stories by when I published them: 18, 23, 18, 18, 23, 18, 18, 24.

For all of my stories, I think it would be difficult to change the age of the female MC. The elements of the story only work if she's the age that she is. You've read my next story. The female MC is 18 in that one. Could I make her 20? 25? 30? I think the story only works if at the start of the story she's close about to graduate from high school.

 

[plesmore]

Depends on the story premise. Some story ideas work only with a girl who is 18. By 18, I mean graduating/just graduated from high school. The ages of the female MC's in my stories by when I published them: 18, 23, 18, 18, 23, 18, 18, 24.

For all of my stories, I think it would be difficult to change the age of the female MC. The elements of the story only work if she's the age that she is. You've read my next story. The female MC is 18 in that one. Could I make her 20? 25? 30? I think the story only works if at the start of the story she's close about to graduate from high school.

I was thinking about other story lines more than incest, especially if it is a father-daughter type story.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Why always the push for underage? There is no need for "barely 18" stories involving sex - which I believe this site tends to write about. What is wrong with a girl in her 20's?

Depends. Most of my characters are in their 20's, with some males a little older. But for some stories, innocence is the point. I have an 18 year old character rather ruthlessly seduced by a 30 year old guy. It's rated very well and a lot of the email it got me was from women. Innocence Seduced (and for some people, Innocence Ravaged) is definitely a Thing.

From my point of view, reading about people in their 40's having sex... yawn. They're grown up. They know what they like. They don't make stupid mistakes too often. All the story hooks that relate to hot but bad impulsive decisions, character development, lessons learned, sexual discovery, emotional growth, intense sudden passion out of the blue... gone. Everything's been replaced by mature, steady, and sometimes cynical assessment. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it takes a very skilled writer to make it tender or interesting, and I don't see a lot of people being successful at it here.

Besides, I'm male. Breasts tend to look more appealing at 19 than 45. Savage but true. For proof, hop into google images and search "sexy woman" or "hot woman" or even "pretty women." Estimate the ages of the first hundred women you see. How many are over 30? Not so many. How many pass for under 20? Rather a lot. There's male readership here and let's not even pretend we don't know what they like, the pigs.

 

[Bramblethorn]

From my point of view, reading about people in their 40's having sex... yawn. They're grown up. They know what they like. They don't make stupid mistakes too often.

Stupid mistakes have great drama potential, sure... but I feel like there's an under-served market for stories about grown-ups who have their shit together. Watching competent people demonstrate expertise can be just as interesting as watching the inexperienced fuck it up.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Stupid mistakes have great drama potential, sure... but I feel like there's an under-served market for stories about grown-ups who have their shit together. Watching competent people demonstrate expertise can be just as interesting as watching the inexperienced fuck it up.

In real life I absolutely agree. Competent people are rare and interesting. And as a kid I was a fan of Alistar McLean's stuff - his main character and side-kicks were human but they were competent - they survived the rough and tumble and solved the crime. You read it just for the thrill of watching someone tread the dangerous waters with something approaching aplomb, or at least a mechanistic grace. I still aspire to write stories like that (albeit not here).

But what's expertise at 45? I'll betray my old world view that heteros who have it together have generally proved their social and sexual competence by attracting and keeping a mate. Mostly that leads to children, and a host of things that aren't sex because sex has served its primary purpose. A good writer could certainly write of their sexuality, sometimes tender, sometimes comic, often supportive and sometimes a complete and messy failure (but who cares). I'm not that writer. If I was I wouldn't be here. It's an underserved market because it's hard to serve.

 

[Hypoxia]

One may write all the underage sex one wishes, and all the bestiality, rape, snuff, mayhem, etc. But don't submit it to LIT because it'll be bounced. Or submit it, accept the rejections, and post it to one's BannedOnLit blog, and/or ASSTR or other sites. Not many will read it, alas. To reach LIT's readership, follow LIT's rules.

 

[8letters]

I feel like there's an under-served market for stories about grown-ups who have their shit together.

Then write a story about grown-ups who have their shit together. When it does well, you can point to its success.

It's easy to write a story about someone who's 18 or 23 so that at the end they're thinking they've found their true love and will now live happily ever after. It's tough for me to imagine being able to do that with someone who is 45.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Then write a story about grown-ups who have their shit together. When it does well, you can point to its success.

It's easy to write a story about someone who's 18 or 23 so that at the end they're thinking they've found their true love and will now live happily ever after. It's tough for me to imagine being able to do that with someone who is 45.

Ok, let's be a *little* fair. People can be in love at 45, and even find love then. It may not have the pyrotechnics we use to backlight erotica stories, but love and lust don't die at 40. They just, like investment strategies, career choices and gardening, take on sane, thoughtful and pragmatic characteristics.

I agree though, that for characters in their 20's, everything is HEA. They discovered their sexuality and can get off at last; or they found their true love as far as they know, or even if they screwed up there's still time to try, try again, and the HEA is the hope that goes with that. No one is a failure at 23 unless they died.

So here's the deal as I see it.

Guys want to read about hot young things. Guys go to their graves wanting to bang 20 year old supermodels. There's nothing unexpected about that; evolution gears guys to make a lot of offspring, and young women can pop more babies than older ones. (It doesn't matter if you don't think that's your goal - evolution is way smarter than you are.)

Women are generally displeased that their sociosexual power peaks at 20 (and younger for some guys) and then get to face a long, slow decline into virtual invisibility before they even figure out what they want. So they focus on getting a mate early, getting a stable relationship (evolution likes stable relationships - better offspring care), and then learning other ways to be a good partner. The Victorian and pre-Vic advice was brutal, but true - gather your rosebuds while you may, but also learn to darn socks and cook because you won't get by on a pretty smile, etc, forever. They were called Accomplishments, but they were basically relationship insurance and baby-nurturing skills.

Accordingly, there's not much as thrilling to some older women than a story about love and passion in people their age. For a few minutes, they don't have to put up with 20 year olds being the queens of the sexual competition, and it's way better than darning socks.

A lot of PC in these enlightened times is an attempt to scrap this old thinking, give everyone equal roles, etc. It's all very wonderful except evolution didn't get the memo and wouldn't read it if it did. So women pursuing careers and dismissing the need for male companionship, guidance, protection, etc still get to hear their biological clock screaming "make a baby. You're supposed to be making babies. You're here to make a baby. See those other people with babies? Make a baby. Now. I said baby, now, damnit. Open those legs and baby up!" at 30; and thoughtful, enlightened, loving, gender-equality-pro males in their 40's still have urges to bang the babysitter.

(Gay folk can skip the pointed retorts. I know you're under different rules and I don't pretend to understand what evolution is up to there, but whatever it is, it works, because evolution has had time to factor our your genes, if it's genetic, and it hasn't.)

 

[MumSisterTgirlLover]

I was thinking about other story lines more than incest, especially if it is a father-daughter type story.

And what would the entail?

 

[MindsMirror]

We've seen stories that'd been up for years go pulled due to age issues. We've read several stories that were so blatant that it is hard to understand how they every got approved. There was no ambiguity or subtly about it.

Also, we've done fairly well with older characters. Our first story was about siblings (sister 44 & brother 38).
-MM

 

[uksnowy]

I am currently re-writing tales I have in ASSTR where I can to increase the age of characters for acceptance in here. There are several it won't work with so they will be left.

 

[8letters]

One may write all the underage sex one wishes, and all the bestiality, rape, snuff, mayhem, etc. But don't submit it to LIT because it'll be bounced. Or submit it, accept the rejections, and post it to one's BannedOnLit blog, and/or ASSTR or other sites. Not many will read it, alas. To reach LIT's readership, follow LIT's rules.

Interesting. I read a story of yours that you posted a link to in another thread. Your story is about 14 year old Tyra and 20 year old Kaz:

It started after Tyra grew tits. Big, lovely tits. Tits that drew male (and even some female) eyeballs and lust. Tits that pumped her full of hormones and drained away her I.Q. Her legs, hips, and face were also quite enticing.
:
Kazuomi Murai indeed sported a reputation. He inherited handsome genes and good money. He was decently educated, and sly and smooth. And he was fixated, focused on fresh pussy. Like Tyra.

Kaz earned his reputation. He was clever enough to always wrap himself in a condom. He left no trail of Asiatic babies in the vicinity, no DNA traces to convict him of moral crimes, only a string of dazed, deflowered girls.

Nubile Tyra was a walking wet-dream. Proper pastoral parents Ben and Elle certainly did not permit her to wear revealing clothes. But she managed to open her collar and roll up her skirt and boost her shoe heels when she was between home and the Christian academy. She knew how good she looked.

Kaz targeted Tyra and her amazing body. He plied her with compliments and attention and small gifts. She ate it up.

A far more sexually explicit description of an underage girl and she is in a sexual situation. If your story is reported, my guess is that it will be rejected.